August 01, 2009

O Margaret Whiting, we love you (even when you go up)

Stacey and I went to all-Mercer show at the 92nd Street Y a few years ago -- an evening of songs sung by Broadway talent concluding with a tune everyone in the audience could join in on, with the words helpfully flashing on a screen, in this case "Moon River," which Jackie Kennedy loved. The special guest was Margaret Whiting now in her eighties and she leaned on the piano and sang "Too Marvelous for Words," the music by her father (Richard Whiting), the words by her "Uncle Johnny," and she went up on her lines and nobody minded and we got to talk to her afterward and she cried. I love her. If you don't know her work, you might start with her fantastic all-Kern record. Thank you, Amy Gerstler, for these images. -- DL

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O Margaret Whiting, we love you (even when you go up)

Stacey and I went to all-Mercer show at the 92nd Street Y a few years ago -- an evening of songs sung by Broadway talent concluding with a tune everyone in the audience could join in on, with the words helpfully flashing on a screen, in this case "Moon River," which Jackie Kennedy loved. The special guest was Margaret Whiting now in her eighties and she leaned on the piano and sang "Too Marvelous for Words," the music by her father (Richard Whiting), the words by her "Uncle Johnny," and she went up on her lines and nobody minded and we got to talk to her afterward and she cried. I love her. If you don't know her work, you might start with her fantastic all-Kern record. Thank you, Amy Gerstler, for these images. -- DL